Saturday, February 4th, 2012
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I’ve started another painting in my class with Gabriel Lipper so I’m not moving along with Noah’s Guitar as fast as I might, but here’s the latest progress:
I think this is where I left off in my last post – still trying to get the rubber out of that guitar neck…
Catching the age of a child is really tricky. Noah might look like this when he’s about 13, but now he’s not quite ten.
There’s something about the angle of his head that isn’t right but I can’t quite figure it out.
SOooo’ I can muck around for hours trying to “find” him (and hone my drawing/painting skills, yes) OR I can do what a purist would call “cheating” and I call a means to an end. I suspect this is done more than most painters will admit but I will share it with you rather than pretend I’m an ace at portraiture.
Here’s what I did: I measured the head in the painting (6 1/2″). Then I opened the reference image in my computer and cropped the photo down to just the head- crown to chin. Then I printed the image choosing the size of 61/2″. Now I have a photo I can lay over the painting and see where I have gone astray. Watch the video:
Ah HA! the reason he looks older is because I’ve made his features too small! And, I’ve made my classic mistake once again of making the right eye too low. That’s why the angle of the head looked off.
Ok- I’ve got this photo so why not rub some charcoal on the back and transfer the position of the features right on to the painting? Who’s to know? Who cares? Not me and hopefully not you.
Now this looks more like the photo – with plenty of room for my interpretation or “style”.
It’s interesting that I can see bits of his sister that I had not noticed before. I’ll let this dry before I do any more, so if I muck it up I can at least go back to this and try again.
And in the meantime there’s a very interesting fretting hand to work on.
Stay tuned – there will be more. Did you like the addition of video in this post?
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Saturday, February 4th, 2012
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You all need to know something. We have a new dog. He’s eye candy – a beautiful tri-color Assie mix with bright eyes and huge ears. He is sweet and smart and playful when it’s time to play and mellow when it’s not. I’m teaching him how to catch a frisbee. He is a joy […]
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Friday, January 13th, 2012
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Remember the pictures of my grandniece Sophie playing her violin and then a couple years later, her flute? Well, her little brother Noah, now nearly 10, is also a musician. This Christmas I snapped some photos of him playing his guitar and when I was trying to boot myself back to work in the studio […]
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Friday, January 13th, 2012
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As a promo during my show at Stonehenge we offered a drawing where anyone who came to see the exhibit could throw their name in to possibly win a Leslie Lee print of their choice. How lovely that the name drawn was my friend Gyllian who now lives in Canada, but still was there for […]
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Friday, December 9th, 2011
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Yesterday the first solo show I have had in a decade was hung. Tomorrow night is the opening. I am in that “what if nobody comes” phase which will heighten progressively throughout the day until 5:30 comes and I’m talking to visitors and old friends who show up. Then for the next few days I […]
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Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
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This summer Dennis and I were asked to participate in a project initiated by the Jefferson Nature Center in Medford called Shifting Patterns. Eleven artists attended an intense education on the subject of Climate Change and then were asked to respond with a piece of art. The intention was to possibly convey the subject in […]
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Monday, July 11th, 2011
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There are 6 other still life studies from last term but I’m more interested in sharing the figure studies we are doing in this 8 week session. What a joy to be working from a model again! The first week we did drawings only- big loose gesture drawings and a few 20 min. poses. The […]
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Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
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Back to oil painting!! A new eight week session at Gabriel Lipper’s studio has begun. This time we will be painting “ala prima” (all at once) one small still life in each of our eight 3 hour classes. We are to bring our own set-up so on the way out the door last Friday morning […]
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